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BIRMAH. 9
mountains. Taking all these circumstances into consideration,
we infer that, to the south of Yun-nan, there
Js an immense tract of low level country, abounding
with lakes, swamps, and morasses,* like the Houquang,
or lake-country of China, or that of the Sete Laffoas
(Seven Lakes) of Paraguay ; that here the waters
of the Siam and Cambodia rivers, at certain seasons at
least, unite, though one or both of these streams may
have a more distant source ; -j- while, to the east of
the kingdom of Siam, a range of mountains, apparently
bending to the S.W., intervenes between the vast
plains of Dwarawaddy and the rocky channel of the
Mei-kong. Further information, however, can alone
verify these conjectures.J
Indo-China, then, consists of three grand divisions,
Birmah, Siam, and Annam, besides the peninsula of
Malacca, and the various independent principalities of
* Districts lying near the base of great ranges of mountains,
Mr. Marsden remarks, especially within the tropical latitudes, are
always found to be unhealthy. The Yun-nan mountains are of
great height, " while the great Nu-kiang, said to be navigable between
that province and Ava, must flow chiefly through a plain
and comparatively low country." MARSDEN'S Marco Polo,
note 858.
t Marini places the sources of the Mei-kong in the Chinese province
of Yun-nan. The Dutch envoy, Wusthof, ascended it in a
boat to the north of Cambodia, and met with great cataracts.
This renders it probable that its banks are rocky, and that it descends
from a higher level than the Mei-nam.
t The strange perplexity in which we have found ourselves involved
in attempting to clear up this point, is in great measure
occasioned by the almost ad libitum application of the word Laos
to different "
regions. Laou or Laos," Sir Stamford Raffles says,
" is the country north of Siam Proper." (FINLAYSON'S Siam,
p. 223, note. If so, it includes Siammay and Yunshan. Yet,
Malte Brun (on the alleged authority of Wusthof) brings it down
almost as far south as Tsiompa, between Cambodia and Cochin
China!
B 2